Fort Belknap Tribe receives $56.9K Child Welfare Research Training or Demonstration grant from the Administration for Children and Families

Fbic modernizing fingerprinting infrastructure for child welfare - project summary project title: fbic modernizing fingerprinting infrastructure for child welfare applicant: fort belknap indian community implementing program: aaniiih nakoda family healing center (anfhc), department of social services address: 656 agency main street, fort belknap, Montana 59526 program director: koda mount phone: (406) 353-8346 email: [email protected] project period: 24 months federal funds requested: $56,942.23 the fort belknap indian community (fbic), through the aaniiih nakoda family healing center (anfhc), proposes to modernize the fingerprinting infrastructure used to conduct required child welfare background checks for prospective foster parents, kinship caregivers, adoptive parents, and other adults residing in potential placement homes. Anfhc currently relies entirely on manually rolled fingerprint cards that must be physically mailed to the Montana department of justice for processing. The existing process creates administrative and mailing delays, requires significant staff involvement, and can require additional processing when fingerprints are unreadable. Background-check results generally take approximately 10 days to two weeks and may take up to three weeks during periods of high processing volume. The proposed 24-month project will address this infrastructure gap through four primary activities: (1) conduct a formal gap analysis and define appropriate technical solutions; (2) purchase, install, test, and implement office-based live scan and portable fingerprinting technology, as feasible and permitted by applicable requirements, and train designated staff; (3) establish and monitor performance measures to assess improvements in efficiency and accessibility; and (4) develop and implement a sustainability plan. Fbic will coordinate with the Montana department of justice, the fbic information technology department, and appropriate technology providers to confirm equipment, connectivity, security, and electronic submission requirements prior to implementation. The project is expected to reduce preventable administrative delays, improve fingerprint quality, decrease the need for repeat fingerprint collection, reduce staff burden, and increase access to fingerprinting services for prospective caregivers experiencing geographic or transportation barriers. Anfhc will measure improvements in collection-to-submission time, background-check timelines, rejected or repeated fingerprints, caregiver access, staff administrative time, and caregiver licensing timelines. By strengthening the efficiency and accessibility of required background checks, the project will support more timely approval of qualified foster and kinship caregivers and fort belknap's broader goal of keeping aaniiih and nakoda children in safe, appropriate family-based homes within their families and tribal community whenever possible.